Test Drive Unlimited

[Guest]

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is splitscreen possible in TDU? My sister and her boyfriend want to play at the same time, but they've only got the one 360 and TV.

Unfortunately not

[Scribblor]

Ah, well. Maybe in the sequel...

[Nicky]

i loved the Lotus around the twisty mountain roads. i didn't bother with the races once i'd found that stretch of roads. It was my playground.

[McSpeed]

Well worth a read: Test Drive Unlimited retrospective on Eurogamer: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-04-28-test-drive-unlimited-retrospective

Coming onto the more rural roads still conveys a sense of making real progress with the journey and, as ever, seeing a clear road ahead and flooring it was a joy just as thrilling now as it was back then. Aside those scrapes with the cops, Test Drive Unlimited is a surprisingly pure experience. It lets you do what you feel and drive where you want without hassling you to do anything else and in doing that, feels more mature and soberly authentic than any of its successors. If anything, it makes you long for a deeper game with more giant locations, more cars and more ambient progression mechanics born out of free-form driving for leisure.

I seriously didn't 'get' this game when it came out. Got the PSP version two years later, but it took Boozy to convince me to pick up the Xbox 360 version and experience the full monty.

Then this happened:

Wow. Sure didn't expect to put 3 + 6 straight hours on day one... in a 5 YEAR OLD GAME! Yeah, Test Drive Unlimited 1 is now officially brilliant in my book

I can't see how I've missed this game for all those years. Tried the demo a few times, and even the final game, but ultimately only picked up the PSP version later on because it was cheap and fun. Had some good hours with that, albeit it with quite some frustration at times, and even thinking it was the best TDU had to offer.

Boy, was I EVER wrong.

The first few hours with TDU on the 360 are a bit awkward, but it all depends on the way you set-up the options and which cars you drive. Switching off all the assists, shifting manually and playing (mostly) from cockpit view, just like Boozy the Clown advised, does add to the experience though. Still, I struggled getting around in my rubbish Saturn Sky (traded it in for an Audi TT quattro Coupe later on), until I got hold of a Nissan 350Z Nismo S-Tune. Typical tuner car, but good stuff to mess about on the streets.

As I thought of calling it a night early on, I did "one last challenge", namely a transport of the Ferrari 288 GTO. Then, the game suddenly clicked (by all means, do play these two videos at the same time):

The sense of speed, the sound of the engine (especially the turbo's spooling after you just press the throttle!) and the music - it all contributes to a great driving atmosphere I was having so much fun just blasting around the island with that Italian rally monster.

Then Boozy and I decided to meet up again (having done a quick race earlier on), and after he added his friend, omnewancanobe, we all got our Caterhams (CSR 260) on and just started driving. And driving. And more driving.

After we drove for about 100 miles, it became clear to me Boozy was guiding us around the island - a route with both endless stretches of asphalt and swerving mountain roads. Going down on those with three blokes in lightweight machines made for sheer driving pleasure, was indescribably brilliant. No racing, no objectives (aside from going all around the island) - just DRIVING. As in Test DRIVE Unlimited.

Sometime later I added Meerman to the party on Live, who gave the demo of TDU yet another try. For him too, it suddenly clicked. Meanwhile, the Caterham crew passed two lurking Lamborghini's, with other online players behind the wheels. They entered pursuit and were on our tail for a few miles, before overtaking and blasting off into the distance

After the three of us had driven about 160 miles we had covered pretty much 75 percent of the island's outskirts, and headed for a club for some chilling out and organized races. Fun stuff too, but nowhere near as great as just cruising around like before. Never experienced anything like that in this way ever before. I recalled the physics of this game as "poor", but it's far from that - more like a nice variation of PGR's handling model, only in an open world!

Looks very good for a 5-year old game, too: the environments are a bit dated, although the car models still look quite good, especially the interiors. Stealing the show are the visual effects, like smoke and leaves (blown away by wind) and dirt collecting on the windscreen.

I can only imagine what the second installment can do to be even better...

Such a shame it never did

[Dudley]

Yep, said it's my favourite ever game many many times.

Forza Horizon is the base of something better but it needs a lot more map and more of the house/person customisation of Unlimited.

[McSpeed]

Forza Horizon is the base of something better but it needs a lot more map and more of the house/person customisation of Unlimited.

If you ask me, the thing with Horizon is that it's mainly a racing game at heart. Sure, you can also just drive about, enjoy the car, the scenary and the music (although TDU's soundtrack is much more suited to cruising), but the maps feels like it was designed with a network of race tracks in mind. It's more about driving from race to race with some odd discovering to be done.

TDU is quite the opposite of that. Although it's actually jused based on Oahu, the roads are far more suited for blasting around then competitive racing. That's why the actual racing events in TDU never really clicked - especially compared to the tailored-like delivery missions, which seem perfect for this game. Actually battling other cars never felt in place, going on road-trips with your friends all the more

Not to mention the house/person customisation, which made TDU feel like it was a lot more about YOU and your lifestyle as a rich-ass petrolhead. In Forza Horizon you're just some bloke working his way up the ranks.

[Mentazm]

Loved TDU1. The second was a let down. TDU1 is my favourite racer of this gen. It felt more like a 'relaxing' driving game than the usual hi-octane affairs. Necessary for me since I'm normally rubbish at racers.

[DJ KNIGHT XIII]

TDU 1 was a fantastic game, if the servers are still live (360) I could see myself picking it up again.

[McSpeed]

TDU 1 was a fantastic game, if the servers are still live (360) I could see myself picking it up again.

As the Eurogamer article points out and I found out when I got back to TDU 1 a few months ago - sadly, the servers are offline

You own't find any other player in world now, and all the clubs have been removed. I'm hoping you can still invite other players to your game, but I'm guessing there's no peer to peer functionality.

Fortunately, there's AI cars and bikes roaming the roads, which can be challenged too. At least a bit of the old sensation is conserved like that.

[Dudley]

Now, one of those AI is called "Dudley".

Please don't make the mistake one of my friends did and follow "me" around for 2 hours.